I would NEVER feed cat food to my cat - personal opinion - Page 2

My first cat the last few months of her life the vet wanted her on wet food as her weight was dropping so low and no vet could tell me why but then the vomiting started to the point one day she vomited clear shiny white foam, tilted her head and died. My second cat was a never ending nightmare of supposed food allergies and was exclusively wet food with very tiny meals 16 times a day to stop vomiting and over a dozen high quality diet trials. It didnt save his life, his last moments was vomiting yellow bile like fluid while howling in pain. Did just having a teeth cleaning two weeks ago add to it? Did all the mometamax steroid ointment finally catch up with him?
I took my sisters 12 year old cat in for 48hrs. She ate about 20 of her hard kibble during that period and sure enough what did she do? Vomited three times. Scarier yet is you can waste thousands of dollars with vets and all they do is guess over and over and from my experience just seem clueless as nothing resolves.

Are you saying that every cat you've owned/taken care of temporarily has had the same vomiting issues while they've been under your care, no matter what food they're eating?

That's either some kind of terribly remarkable coincidence, or there's some containment in their environment that made them all sick.

I may be misreading your post, and if so, I apologize, but if I'm reading it correctly, that's a really strange pattern, you may want to look into what might be in your home that could be causing such identical symptoms in all of the cats you've housed.

especially on the last case, where your sister's cat was under your care for 48 hours and ate *her* kibble, not a different food... A food that she was eating at her place I would assume without issues?...

Yeah according to my sister her cat went back to normal when she went home and it was her own kibble. My sister thought I may have been right 12 years is way too long to rehome a cat and she was stress vomiting, the cat surely was majorly depressed without her. Same thing with my first cat I guess. Nearly 13, had been losing weight for years but adding the stray kitten into the mix even in a locked room put her over the edge perhaps. And dear recently departed aki was found burnt and with massive yeast bacterial fungus debris in both ears that would keep regenerating from a few days to just a few hours towards the end. With constant steroid ointment as the only relief for few hours but you could tell from him licking, scratching and swollen lip immediately after ingestion even with all food trials, food played a role.

I live in single story single room apt built in 1976, there is no cross ventilation so unless you get great wind from east where all windows are its overly dry, abit stale though ac runs in summer. No filtration furnace system, just hot water from boiler that comes into registers with pipes.

If someone wants to suggest I may have killed these cats by bringing them into my apartment I would like to know from what? I feel cursed enough I may very well just stay lonely and not get another animal but still logically speaking looking at the forum cats just seem to vomit alot especially when at end of their life or gravely ill.

All my asking and research there is nothing out there documented besides two reports of black mold toxicity in cats and I believe that has respiratory side effects. And my apt manager laughs at the idea I have unseen hidden mold so bad it started to kill my first cat slowly since 2006 and now is so strong it effects a cat in less then 48hrs all the while being unseen in dry clean well kept apartment with no history of water damage. Those tests for anything remotely accurate are very expensive and she does not see any evidence in her 40 years of apt managing to run such a test. The paint which no cats have ever really played with is water based, no old lead I am told. What is really left that environmentally that can make cats vomit? I dont do fragrances or use strong cleaners in front of cats, mostly dawn soap and hot water. I live alone so no one is monkeying around thankfully.Keeping in mind my first cat was in here since 2001 and wasnt until she was nearly 10 years old that she started to lose weight and vomiting was end game, last 2 weeks of her life.

Very dumb ? but has a radon check been done?

Hmm, good question, I will look into that. thanks sharky.
Honestly I dont know how I would go on if I found out my apartment, I was responsible in some way. Aki was once in lifetime.

We're still feeding our kittens meat sachets and dry biscuits, I occasionally mix lightly cooked broccoli into their wet food, and we give them raw chicken wings for their teeth. I have heard that tinned food tends to be too high in salt & fat which is bad for their organs, so I'd like to eventually move to home prepared meals, or at least quality pet meats from either the cold section at the supermarket or the butcher and some veggies.
There's a woman in my town that has two cats, and she feeds them solely on an organic vegetarian diets and they are apparently the healthiest cats you'd ever meet - shiny, energetic... I'm vegetarian myself so I see that as a very tempting track, but I have mixed thoughts about how to give them everything they need. I wont bring my veg opinion here regarding people! I can do what I like with my own body but with them, I'd like to give them the best.
I don't have the necessary money or knowledge to give them a home prepared diet at this stage - I will definitely be doing so whenever I can, it's just a matter of making the transition and hopefully my lifestyle will mould to fit it.

They may have shiny coats but that vegetarian diet is going to come back and bite her. They will eventually suffer from malnutrition.

Cats bodies require meat protein to thrive. There is just no getting around it, cats are obligate carnivores and that means they need meat. No vegetable protein can replace it.

You know what you call people who try to make their cats vegetarians?

Former cat owners.

I'm bolding part of that for emphasis. Being vegetarian is a choice for you, and if you don't want to push that choice on other people, then how is pushing that choice on your cats any better? At least other people have the option to listen to what you have to say and still choose not to follow it, but your cats have no choice but to eat what you give them.

As others said, cats are obligate carnivores. What would be the purpose of forcing them to eat a vegetarian diet? You seem concerned about giving them commercial food because of the unnatural additives/extra fats/etc. but you realize that vegetarianism is not natural for cats either, right? Cats require certain essential nutrients (like taurine) to survive. These nutrients can only be found in meat. In a vegetarian diet, these nutrients would need to be supplemented back in, and there's no guarantee that there aren't some other nutrients found only in meat that we're not aware of yet, that they'd still be lacking. I am personally very skeptical that most cats could live long, healthy, happy lives eating absolutely no meat. It may be possible for a cat to survive on a vegetarian diet? I don't know. But it's certainly not ideal, and doesn't seem like it'd offer the best quality of life, and could seriously risk their health. Some cats can't even digest grains and/or plant matter very well at all.

I say all of this as someone who is also a vegetarian, for the record. I understand the point of view obviously. I'm feeding my cats a raw diet and it's difficult for me sometimes because of my aversion to meat. But I know it's what they need to be healthy, and I'm willing to do it for them.

I don't mean to offend, but I feel if someone really is not comfortable feeding meat to their pets, they shouldn't own pets that require meat-based diets. There are plenty of vegetarian pets out there. But if someone wants to own a cat, they need to understand their dietary needs and meet them, not force an unnatural diet upon them based on personal dietary preferences.

Please understand I am not trying to judge anyone. FACT: Cats require taurine, only found in meat/protein. Cats are carnivores, require meat/protein. I feel that if someone wants a cat and can't feed them meat/protein (raw or commercial) please don't own a cat. They will become quite ill with many health issues. Now, I don't profess to be a cat nutritionist, but I do know they need meat/protein to be healthy and thrive.

I have always fed commercial diets, but nowadays, there are superior diets to choose from, far superior than many years ago. And some of those diets are as close to raw as you can get without having to feed raw. i.e. Instinct. I don't feed Instinct but use their wet food, good stuff.

That's what I was trying to say. I can do what I like with my own body, but for them its a different story. What I meant by 'I want to give them the best' was that I know they're meat eaters, but I feel that we could be doing better than the packet food we currently feed them.
Whether that means giving them all raw meat, or some fresh veggies mixed in or what, I don't know yet.
I didn't want to make it sound like I was going to force them into being vegetarian.
As I said, it IS tempting for me to explore a vegetarian diet for the kittens because I am, BUT I also very much understand that they are an entirely different animal. I was trying to express my lack of experience with it and my desire vs. anxiety towards giving them a solely vegetarian diet. I'm not experienced with that. I didn't mean to upset anyone, and I certainly wouldn't change their diet willy nilly! :S

Please know that I absolutely adore my cats, and whilst it was my fault for not making the context of my statement clear, it does hurt when people imply that I shouldn't be keeping them.

I guess I just didn't say it as best as I could.

I am however obligated to thank you for your words as it has given me the opportunity to stand up for myself and clear things up.

Ahh I see now. Sorry for misunderstanding! I'm glad you're willing to feed your cats what they need despite your personal dietary reservations. It can be tough sometimes, I definitely sympathize there. I don't love looking at or smelling my cats' raw food (and the chicken variety has a tendency to be...bloody, blech). But they love it and are doing so well on it, so I'll put up with my discomfort for them.

I know, I can't stand the smell of their chicken wings, and even the chicken sachets, but they enjoy it so much!

Hi, DemstarAus!

If you'd like to do some research into feline nutrition, you might find the Feline Nutrition Education Society (feline-nutrition.org) a good starting point. Catinfo.org and Catnutrition.org are also chock-full of relevant information.

For anyone who is interested in researching commercial foods, what goes in it, why the Pet Food Industry is basically unregulated (and how we can change that), the latest recalls, etc., you can check out the truthaboutpetfood.com website.

For the record, I stopped feeding commercially-prepared foods to my own cats after the 2007 pet food poisoning. I do, however, still feed commercial grain-free canned foods to my fosters. Just like how we feed our families, what we offer our cats is a very personal choice, and my recommendation is always to offer your furbaby the highest-quality nutrition you can afford that he or she will eat.

Best regards!

AC

Hi, another vegetarian here - my cats often turn their noses up at the food I provide and go and catch themselves some tasty mice. There's nothing they like better. And I get to clean up after them.....